Sometime ago I burned out on Baldur's Gate and had to take break from playing & helping out on the forums. I started playing & modding other games. After hearing about Baldur's Gate EE I started thinking about playing again, but didn't have the game installed on my computer. After starting my YouTube channel and making Let's Play series I started thinking it would be fun to make a Mega Baldur's Gate series. So I took a week to get a BWS install setup & working the way I wanted. I know I have more to say to my friends and I will do it as I reengage with the good people here.

This series is going to be my playthrough of Baldur's Gate Trilogy from the start of Baldur's Gate to the end of Throne of Bhaal with very many mod. This includes the mods: Big Picture, Sword Coast Stratagems, The Darkest Day, Shadows Over Soubar, Check the Bodies, Never Ending Journey 2, Tortured Souls, Tower of Deception, DSotSC, The Drizzt Saga, Secret of BoneHill, Dark Horizons, Fishing for Trouble, Colours of Infinity, NTotSC and many more! There are many PPG mods as part of this series like Xan mod, de'Arnise Romance, Unfinished Business, Banter Packs along with others. I will be posting my WeiDU log on the YouTube page.

Tab, using this key is a necessity for BG 2 dungeons. Some items are hidden in containers that seem to be ordinary parts of the wall or whatever. Tab key shows whether you really have found everything or not.Keep waving the cursor to find things that can be manipulated, as well as messages.As this is on You Tube, you can alter the speed whenever the video quickly shows large amounts of dialog.

Kagain in the party, should be interesting to see how long this lasts. He does not care for Justice, he is totally out for himself. Kagain views quest givers only as a source of income, not as a way to help the oppressed. When the party's reputation increases he will get more and more upset.

Annoying party prattle "For the fallen!, did I read this in a book?, on my honor!" can be silenced in BG2.

I plan on keeping a core of NPCs along with some coming & going. Imoen is a core feature in BG2 so she stays and I like Minsc so I think he stays. Jaheira shows up in BG2 and I am thinking of keeping her also. Who else might we find? We will see who stays. I really wish I could have a bigger party!

There are 24 official Bioware NPCs, 8 for each alignment (Good, Neutral, Evil)I can give you the list if you want, if you don't already have it.Evil NPCs are presumably happiest when the party has a Reputation around 1?That leaves the party looking at non-Evil NPCs. Here the choice is not great, it is mostly Fighter, Cleric and Thief. In a game where the party gains Thief Imoen upon leaving Candlekeep, the most common class for an NPC happens to be Thief!You can always use an unofficial, mod, NPC.An alternative is to create your own NPC using Near Infinty. You can use the dialog and name of an official NPC.

Oh I know all of the Bioware NPCs and already have a list in my head of who & when I am going to have in my party. I am just not giving it away yet. I also have plans for temporary joiner NPCs added by other mods. Jet'Laya

The Level 1 NPCs mod does this far better in a sort of a way, the NPC has it's stats, but you can change all the others things(class, kit, proficiency etc.)But for that, you should install it before you start the play-through... just so that the game is complete before the start. Yes, the mod is included in the BWS, but this feature is not installed in the regular installs cause the inputs are so many and so forth. Yes, each NPC has their own component, and you have a lots of choices to make. And it features most of the mod NPCs too. .... Make 40 Assassins.

As I recall, the BG2 version of the mod does allow alteration of stats, just as well if you are going to radically change the NPC's class.If using an official NPC and if you haven't yet started the game, using Level 1 NPCs is the way to go. Once the game starts the NPC details are recorded in the save game file, Level 1 NPCs can no longer make any difference because it alters the Cre creature files. A new version of Level 1 NPCs is needed, one that could alter the parts of the save game files where the NPC details are recorded. This would enable you to alter an NPC in the middle of the game.

If you are halfway through the game you would need my longer and more laborious approach.

It seems that when you leave a zone and head outdoors, the destinations available may depend upon which edge of the map you exit from. For example, North of the Friendly Arm Inn there is a great destination with a great Paladin NPC, just what sort of NPC I wanted! However, this destination is not available when you leave to the South?!

I bought the Gog version of BG EE and could not locate the mouse cursor when playing the game! To use the mouse I had to guess the cursor's current location.In the main BG1 EE directory you will find a file called Goglog.ini, that lead me to the location of Baldur.ini. On line 57 of that file I found a Demonic power and principality: 'Graphics', 'Hardware Mouse Cursor', '1',Changing the 1 to a 0 enabled me to see where the cursor was and thus play the game normally.

(Incidentally, for activating the console, for BG EE the phrasing is: 'Game Options', 'Cheats', '1',)(You may need to run EnableCheatKeys() every time you load a game.)Don't know what the problem was but it went away. This was also a problem when I recently tried to run my Neverwinter Nights game, which came out years ago, on a CD. I am on Windows 8.1

It is both good to know that you were able to fix your problem with the cursor and that you posted how it can be fixed if others have the same problem (I have other found answers to things like this by searching the web)!

Each unvisited zone must be 'unlocked' by as you say going to that edge of the map. Once you have visited it or just started to leave by that edge of the map it has a blue highlight and you no longer need go from touching edge to touching edge. It makes it seem you are exploring a fully developed world!

Having not played BG before I did not know that the zone exists. It is a death trap for a beginning party, but the party was able to add the Paladin and clear out back to the the Friendly Arm Inn. My protagonist has only 10 Charisma and the manual says that it is the Charisma of the #1 character that determines dialog outcomes. The #1 character, not the protagonist per se and not the selected character. A 17 Charisma Paladin is just the ticket here.

Part 16 - Gnoll Fortress 1, the text was only half readable! I could not get better than "240p" when I checked Quality under the Settings button. I tried all three screen sizes and none of them fixed the problem. Normally the text is perfectly readable, so the problem in part 16 must be a function of "p", the picture quality.

I am sorry about part 16! It is bad recording settings! It will be the only one that bad. I am going to keep the video quality high for the series!

BG2 only had large out door areas needed for the plot line, but BG1 had the whole region developed. They all have things to do and some have quests related to the NPCs, but are unnecessary to the main plot line. If you stick to the main areas for the plot line then a full party should be able to handle things. Once your party is stronger then you can go exploring.

Yes, Part 17 was fully readable, I need 360p or 480p quality to see the text clearly.

My line-up for BG EE:melee: Ajantis, Khalid, Jaheiramissile: Imoen, Abdel-Adrian, NeeraAjantis is the Paladin found in the area North of the Friendly Arm Inn.Abdel Adrian is the protagonist, he is usually safe in the #5 position.Neera is a BG EE Wild Mage NPC.

BG EE probably plays much like original BG1, with the BGT mod added. You have the full slate of kits and so on. It is broadly like your Let's Play.Familiars are the prosaic BG2 variety, hence you would be concerned with keeping them alive more than anything else.

Apart from death traps the party is doing quite well. Death traps can be found all too easily:to the East of the Beregost Temple of Lathanderin the Nashkel Cemetery, when you read a certain tombstone more than once.

You are frequently finding dead innocents in the outdoors but you can do nothing to resurrect them. Meanwhile party members can usually be raised from the dead whenever that is required.

Ajantis & Jaheira are good! Khalid is a coward, you will find him going out of control if he gets too wounded. I don't known Neera as I haven't played EE.

Yes, the Fairy Dragon is a bit overpowered but so are some of the mod added encounters. What do you think of the named 'Flitter' for my Fairy Dragon? Yes I would keep normal familiars in your backpack.

Your party's Reputation is still only 11! My party has hit 14 and we are still near Nashkel, could boost it to 15 with 500GP.Khalid is quite good in BG EE, so far as I know at this time in the game.Part 19: around 25:18 you asked a question which I could not quite understand. You wanted the viewers' opinions on something?

I asked "what do the viewers think of my combat tactics?' I should get my reputation up! It will help, I have just been concentrating on keeping to game flow going and not looking at things like that. I should a bit more 'off camera'.

Things my have changed with EE, it just has been my experience with him that if he goes too low in HP the circle around him turn yellow & I can no longer control him. That bothered me when I had him in the party.

In BG EE, Khalid will only go yellow when hit with a fear spell or effect, ditto other PCs.

Your tactics are quite effective. I have three NPCs use missile weapons. You may be heading towards the Gnolls sooner than the game designers intended...My party does not have Minsc, so he is not there to urge us on to the Gnoll fort.

Now at 17 Reputation, party seems to get a 15% deduction on the prices we pay, less than in Original BG1.Nashkel Mines is fairly easy, but I am not playing with a mod that increases the difficulty.

Good to hear! without all the added tactics mod BG 1, at least the version I played, is geared right if you fallow the main story line. Balanced between being too easy & giving you a challenge. When there are so many added mods you get a lot more experience and the standard content becomes too easy.

No I left Xan behind, we already have the Wild Mage. His Moonblade might be good in melee but he would not have many hp. No Invocation/Evocation?!Jaheira is getting hit a lot, her armor is standard Druidic which means no Splint Mail. Imoen has the same armor but she usually uses missile weapons. So far we have not found magical armor.Party has not needed to use Entangle yet, we can handle all fights so far. Snipers are handled by forcing them into melee...My party is about the same level as yours, you have 11 Reputation and we have 19. You are not completing the right quests or your mods are really restrictive on Reputation increases. (Once your Reputation increases Kagain should be more and more unhappy till he walks out.)

One tactic I have used is to get one persons AC (AC verses piercing & missiles as low as possible) and have that one charge the enemy and all enemy archers shoot at him while the others use missile weapons.

Yes, you have to balance your party, there are more cool NPCs than you can have in your party.

BG EE and probably the original BG1 lacked anything like the Duergar fight in the mines, presumably it comes from a mod.One trick is to send the first PC into a zone full of monsters, he walks back out and then they all come out after him. This is useful when the zone (room, house, cave, whatever) is full of nasty monsters capable of trashing the party. They frequently come out a few at a time so you slaughter each batch as they come out.Hold Person can do the same thing as Entangle,when fighting the bounty hunters out to kill us. It may take two castings to paralyze enough monsters to make it worthwhile.